Sins v1.02 Changelog

Coming soon...

Frogboy

We hope to get this out this week. Ironclad has been working hard to make v1.02 available as soon as possible but we also have to finish testing.

Updated info at bottom:

Here is what will be new:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------Gameplay / Balance:----------------------------------------------------------------------------Tutorials moving into bad states at random fixed.-Siege frigate survivability decreased.-Pirate raid frequency decreased.-Later stage missions to destroy ships and structures have had their expiry times increased.-Clairvoyance: duration increased from 30, 45 60 seconds per level to 50, 100, 150 seconds.-Guidance: cooldown changed from 20, 15, 10 seconds per level to 20 seconds at all levels.-Guidance: ability cooldown rate changed from +20%, +35%, +50% per level to +40% at all levels.-Guidance: duration changed 20 seconds at all levels to 15, 30, 45 seconds per level.-Reverie: friendly units will no longer auto-acquire enemies under the effects of reverie as attack targets.-Reverie: duration increased from 15, 20, 25 seconds per level to 20, 30, 40 seconds.-Gravity Warhead: range decreased from 7000 to 6000 at all levels.-Gravity Warhead: cooldown increased from 18, 16, 14 seconds per level to 25 seconds at all levels .-Gravity Warhead: antimatter cost raised from 80 to 100 at all levels.-Gravity Warhead: duration changed from 12 seconds at all levels to 12, 15, 18 seconds per level.-Gravity Warhead: Speed reduction changed from 15%, 30%, 45% per level to 30%, 45%, 60% .-Gravity Warhead: Acceleration reduction changed from 20%, 40%, 60% per level to 60%, 80%, 120%.-Nano-Disassember: range increased from 4500 to 6000 at all levels.-Nano-Disassember: antimatter cost decreased from 85 to 75 at all levels.-Ion Bolt: antimatter cost increased from 65 to 85 at all levels.-Ion Bolt: cooldown from 9, 11, 13 seconds per level to 10, 12, 14 seconds.-Shield Projection: radius of effect increased from 2500 to 5000.-Game update rate change hooked to - and = buttons (singleplayer only).-Two new pirate-less maps.-First tutorial now handles players spending their ability point before they were intended to and thus not being able to spend it when instructed.-Phasic Transmissions research is now effective even at max fleet supply research.-Reduced Phasic Transmissions supply bonus from 20% down to 15%.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------Networking / Multiplayer:----------------------------------------------------------------------------Games in progress causing "Rejected by Host" error fixed.-Multiplayer lobby screens now have Map Designer tab.-Whisper functionality for ICO-Refactored join game screen.-Fix for not seeing friend's games.-New chat friendly ICO font.-ICO user names are now sorted.-Self and friends are colored in ICO channel player list.-Events for players entering and leaving channels.-ICO nows preserves history when changing channels.-ICO logged in user count now displayed. This number will only update when you change channels or login.-Added some default lobby names.-Reorganized numbered lobbies to increment sequentially as they fill.-Added notification of what channel you are in.-Fix for rare multiplayer lobby crash when host leaves a game in ICO.-Various new ICO message strings.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------UserInterface / HUD:----------------------------------------------------------------------------Added counter descriptions for all frigates and fighters.-Game menu now mapped to F10 by default instead of Esc so people can repeatly press Esc to close any submenu they may-Fix rare bug in group selection. be in w/o going all the way to the escape menu.-Various strings cleaned up.

Some people are complaining that we're simply catering to "whiners". I would remind those people that Stardock has many many years of experience in putting together lists based on user feedback and making its own judgments on the matter. The GalCiv series, for instance, has evolved plenty over the years and it's unlikely you're going to find any reasonable person who would say that we simply make changes based on who is loudest.

Prior to release, our internal testing of the game has produced a lengthy list of suggestions for future updates (1.01, 1.02, 1.03, and so on). Stardock and Ironclad get together, discuss what things we would like to change, and then prioritize it. The only thing that was "rushed out" for this release was some additional maps that don't have pirates so users have a choice.

It is not hard to defend against siege units. But that is irrelevant. No counter to a given strategy should require more effort than the initial strategy. Throwing a swarm of siege units, takes virtually no effort. Defending against it requires considerably more. Similarly, the strength of the pirates is fine. It's how OFTEN they strike. The changes are not drastic, however.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Stardock, we can understand your concerns. For those of you who have GalCiv II, I would hope you all know better than to think that we make changes on a whim based on who posts loudest on a forum by now. Ironclad shares the same views as we do on this matter. It's their game and we get together and discuss these things at length.

if you guys go balls to the walls everytime someone cries wolf, this game is going to go down the tubes VERY quickly. make this another starcraft, not another supreme commander.

this is a bad road to start traveling down, there were at least as many people opposed to the concept as reflexively attatched to it. going with the more vocal group, let alone the unexperienced vocal group, is a bad bad idea.

taking care of the community is different from taking care of the newcomers.

if you guys go balls to the walls everytime someone cries wolf, this game is going to go down the tubes VERY quickly. make this another starcraft, not another supreme commander.

this is a bad road to start traveling down, there were at least as many people opposed to the concept as reflexively attatched to it. going with the more vocal group, let alone the unexperienced vocal group, is a bad bad idea.

taking care of the community is different from taking care of the newcomers.

The Siege concern was brought up by Stardock's internal testing before the forums went crazy and the Pirate Frequency change was brought up internally before it as well. The timing is such that the forums only reinforced certain internal arguements that were already in progress.

You know us by now Schod, we consider what everyone is saying, take it into account and make the decision we ultimately feel is right. Sometimes they are popular, sometimes they aren't. Any seasoned beta tester (such as yourself) has seen plenty of both. Besides, if any change fails the test, we can always revert back easy enough

P.S What you should really be thinking about is how you are going to beat me in our upcoming match!

I can understand concern based on a few people over an extended period of time, I can understand concern from a group of people over a short period of time, but you still need to wait until you have a lot of people over an extended period of time before you jump to any conclusions. you simply do not have the data pool to be making reflex decisions and modifications, thats how many many games get ruined: under an ever expanding wave of reflex, poorly understood adjustments.

to be more concise: I'm not worried about your changes, I'm worried about the alacrity and reckless faith with which you are willing to change things blind and indescriminantly. Its something that fails to ever impress me with regards to any game, even this one (my favorite example being the new upper cap limit, in a 10 way FFA on random huge I've hit the limit just defending my planets from two different sieging AI. thats a big issue)

What you should really be thinking about is how you are going to beat me in our upcoming match!

*sigh* I wish, you waited far too long to play against me, now I'm back to the ol' "half an hour free time per day" schedual.

I have to agree the balance adjustments may be to soon based on just a few players feedback.

It's human nature to find faults with a game system before assuming their own lack of skill is at fault. Fragile human egos want to find something else to blame before blaming themselves.

I see this all the time with MMOs. Typically player's cry foul on the game balance when outskilled by a more experienced opponent or just call them cheaters when they are "unfairly" beaten.

My Advice: Conduct online polls and surveys and get lot's of feedback before making changes. Or perhaps collate game data from online games and request said data via the single player game.

You can do this by providing "Send Results to Stardock" buttons at the end of a game. That way you can see if a player's complaint is valid and balance adjustments need to be made after enough data comes in.

they are, but they arent the whole community. they are whats known as radicals, they simply dont understand enough to get whats going on... yet.

That doesnt look like blind or reckless moves to me

the internal gamma was a few dozen people, now its a law of psychology that humans predispose themselves to one strategy in the absence of new data. hence why I said, and I quote"I can understand concern based on a few people over an extended period of time, I can understand concern from a group of people over a short period of time, but you still need to wait until you have a lot of people over an extended period of time before you jump to any conclusions"my point being that neither a big, inexperienced group or a small, elite group is a good test group. we need to have a big group of relatively experienced people playing before we go crazy on our big red "NERF!!!" buttons.

I wholeheartedly agree that the easy is too strong for newcomers

my disclaimer that this had "nothing to do" with the siege frigats was TWO WORDS away from this sentance, how the hell did you miss it? I mean really? so you have some sort of tunnel-eyed myopia?

When you show me your resume with all your previous experience as a game designer, I'll take what you have to say seriously. It's one thing to have an opinion and it's another to come in and act like you know how to do their job better than them.

Until then, you'd be better off letting the professionals do their job.

we were not kowtowed to within three days.

I can understand concern based on a few people over an extended period of time, I can understand concern from a group of people over a short period of time, but you still need to wait until you have a lot of people over an extended period of time before you jump to any conclusions. you simply do not have the data pool to be making reflex decisions and modifications, thats how many many games get ruined: under an ever expanding wave of reflex, poorly understood adjustments.

to be more concise: I'm not worried about your changes, I'm worried about the alacrity and reckless faith with which you are willing to change things blind and indescriminantly. Its something that fails to ever impress me with regards to any game, even this one (my favorite example being the new upper cap limit, in a 10 way FFA on random huge I've hit the limit just defending my planets from two different sieging AI. thats a big issue)

What you should really be thinking about is how you are going to beat me in our upcoming match!

*sigh* I wish, you waited far too long to play against me, now I'm back to the ol' "half an hour free time per day" schedual.

And while Im thinking abt it, you "better" take care of the new-comers, because they are the ones who will make or break this game in sales figures which equals DUH income for its own maker. Making the game too hard for most of its new players is a really dumb move (in which they are planning to correct soon), and anyone who trys to talk them out of that is either only concerned abt themselfs and their wants, or doesnt see the whole picture here. Let me paint it for you ... I say lets make easy like its supposed to be with the fun factor uneffected, and sell a ton of copies without a rep that its WAY too hard to play for newcomers... I believe that is the unbiased un self-centered money making smart move here, eh?...